Due to popular demand, Pacific Grove's parklets are safe, but will face new regulations.

The emails have been flowing into the Pacific Grove City Council for more than a month, over 100 of them, nearly all of them urging councilmembers to preserve the city’s outdoor dining parklets. Message received: Councilmembers said in a meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 21, that they're ready to keep the city's existing parklets, with some additional rules that have yet to be decided.

Prompting those letters was an 86-page report by a P.G. Planning Commission subcommittee that recommended 14 rules for parklets. Those rules would have meant all existing parklets would have to be torn down; some could have and rebuilt much smaller, and at least five of the current 13 parklets would have been eliminated entirely.

Despite pleas from restaurant owners who said the new rules would hurt their businesses in a time of inflation and other challenges, the Planning Commission voted 4-1 on Dec. 8 to send the recommendations to the City Council.

Last night the council heard the Planning Commission recommendations—it took Planning Commissioner Claudia Sawyer over 20 minutes to summarize her subcommittee’s detailed report—alongside recommendations from city staff that would leave existing parklets standing.

Some of the commission’s recommendations went beyond what was required by existing codes, said John Kuehl, the city’s chief building official. While the planning commissioners were concerned about safety, Kuehl suggested that some people’s perception of what’s safe may not correlate with laws already in place.

During public comment, the new owner of Jeninni Kitchen + Wine Bar, Jerry Regester, said he and his partner purchased the restaurant because of its parklet. If they had to tear it down and rebuild to the commission’s standards, it would only be about a third of its current size.

“We do this for passion and for love,” Regester, a long-time chef, said. “We love what we do.” However, cutting the parklet would put pressure on a business already hit with inflation and high labor costs. He estimated tearing down the parklet would cost between $10,000-$15,000. They probably wouldn’t rebuild, he said.

When it came time for the City Council to weigh in, it was clear there was no appetite for accepting all of the Planning Commission’s recommendations. Several councilmembers—Mayor Bill Peake, Luke Coletti and new members Lori McConnell and Debby Beck—had a long list of concerns and safety recommendations, however. (Beck, as a former planning commissioner, was a member of the parklet subcommittee before she was elected to the council on Nov. 8.) 

Councilmember Chaps Poduri embraced the city’s staff’s recommendations, arguing that the city needed to expand its parklet program for the sake of the city’s economic health.

“Vibrancy is definitely required in downtown Pacific Grove,” he said. “So how do we bring about this downtown Pacific Grove vibrancy into the equation? The pandemic has created a wonderful opportunity for us to actually increase parklets, increase visitors to town.

“When I came into this meeting I had the mindset that we had two different proposals to look at, but now that I'm looking at things and hearing all the comments here, we as a community are working toward one proposal,” Poduri said, referencing the staff proposal.

The council ultimately directed staff to come back at a later date with an ordinance that incorporate additions taking into consideration traffic safety, signage and disability access, among others. Councilmembers agreed with a staff recommendation for restaurant owners to reapply annually for encroachment permits and said there needed to be fees attached to using the public right-of-way. 

“The demise of Pacific Grove parklets is not happening,” Coletti said, “whatever consolation that derives.”

The current parklet program sunsets on May 31, 2023.